Windows 8 launch: three year user backlash predicted

Microsoft knows it has to do something in order to claw back some kind of market position, not now but five years into the future. The culture of computing is changing amongst the young and hip consumer, and it's moving away from the Microsoft Windows-centric vision of the past. While Microsoft remains buoyant within the enterprise, powering business globally with plenty of success, the Seattle tech giant would do well to realise that even this core part of the corporate plan is not immune to the generation now effect. What consumers want today can, indeed almost certainly does, influence how enterprises react tomorrow. And that's where the real problems are for Microsoft and the launch later today of Windows 8.

The latest version of Windows has changed beyond all recognition, or at least it has from the Microsoft perspective. Truth be told, it's pretty old news for the tablet toting, screen swiping, design desiring, cloud-based trend setters of today. I heard Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, talking up Windows 8 on the radio earlier today and he spoke excitedly in terms of how this is as big as the first IBM PC for example, and how Microsoft is re-imagining the world from the world up with Windows 8. Certainly it needs to be a success if Microsoft is to get a proper foothold, even at the very bottom of a very tall ladder, on the smartphone and tablet market where Apple with iOS and Google with Android rule supreme right now.

According to analysts Forrester, the Microsoft share of the personal device market, which includes PCs as well as tablets and smartphones, is around a third today. A few short years back Microsoft enjoyed a 95% stranglehold over the then dominant PC market, before the boom in touchscreen mobility. So can Windows 8 save Microsoft? Many think that's a big ask. Heck, even the timing of the Windows 8 launch could hardly be worse, considering the headline space stolen by Apple with the launch of the iPad Mini at the start of the week and the headlines criticising the Microsoft Surface in reviews this week as well. Not a good springboard from which to launch the platform that Microsoft has everything pinned on.

The radical overhaul of Windows 8 is such that it could even have got away with being called something different, in fact something different might not have been a bad idea; an opportunity for Microsoft to move away from the past and launch itself as a new brand, a new player in the market of tomorrow. A change of name might also have prevented the inevitable problems that many users of Windows 7, and perhaps more tellingly the versions of the OS that came before, who upgrade and find themselves in totally alien territory will experience. Isolating a big lump of your own, loyal, userbase is no way to encourage that loyalty to continue. One of the biggest design specialists in Europe, Foolproof, carried out research with real users to find out what they thought of Windows 8. The results were less than encouraging for Microsoft, with typical user comments including:

"I feel like a baby again. I can’t do anything…” and "That wasn’t a natural place to go look for search….”

John Waterworth, a senior practitioner at Foolproof, says the research "highlights the huge pain barrier that even the most experienced user will have to go through to get to grips with the Windows 8 UI. Even assuming it takes the average user a - highly-conservative - couple of hours to come to terms with the changes, this would imply the loss of more than 300,000 man-years of productivity worldwide. Microsoft will need very broad shoulders to weather the likely backlash from consumers on social media, which we believe could last as long as 2-3 years.”

As Editorial Director and Managing Analyst with IT Security Thing I am putting more than two decades of consulting experience into providing opinionated insight regarding the security threat landscape for IT security professionals. As an Editorial Fellow with Dennis Publishing, I bring more than two decades of writing experience across the technology industry into publications such as Alphr, IT Pro and (in good old fashioned print) PC Pro. I also write for SC Magazine UK and Infosecurity, as well as The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. Along the way I have been honoured with a Technology Journalist of the Year award, and three Information Security Journalist of the Year awards. Most humbling, though, was the Enigma Award for 'lifetime contribution to IT security journalism' bestowed on me in 2011.

I freak whenever anyone touches my monitor screen. It was bad enough at the office with a glass screen. It's even worse with a laptop. I got so fed up with cleaning fingerprints off the display that my response now is (when the perp is wearing glasses) to remove their glasses and plant a great greasy fingerprint in the middle of each lens. It gets the point across. Occasionally when I get a "well that was rude" response I just reply "and what you did wasn't?".

So I have to wonder how bad things are going to get with the proliferation of touch screen technology. I understand there is a lot of research being done to create surfaces to which body oils will not cling but we're not there yet.

I use an iPad and a laptop connected to a large Dell touschscreen on a daily basis. Can't recall the last time I cleaned either, to be honest. Mind you, my eyesight is so bad I probably can't see the fingerprints and smears :)

Erm, and what has that got to do with anything? Are you worried that Windows 8 is likely to be more susceptible to virus infection? The security measures in Windows 8 have been ramped up once again, and look like being more effective than in Windows 7 which, in turn, was a huge improvement over Vista. Of course, there light always be problems early on if you are using security solutions which are not 100% Windows 8 ready, and there is always going to be the initial flurry of attention from those looking for zero days to exploit. However, given that Windows 8 will not overtake Windows 7 in market share terms for some time, and to start with it will represent a fairly limited attack surface in terms of bums on seats when compared to other Windows versions, it's unlikely that too much investment will be made from the malware perspective just yet.

My feeling on this matter is that I would never want a 'tablet' interface for my desktop. I know people say the desktop is dying, but I don't personally plan on abandoning mine in the foreseeable future. I have no problem with the interface on my desktop being different than on my tablet. And if I did want an ugly, clunky tablety interface on my desktop, I'd go back to the loving arms of Gnome 3.

Rev. Jim, I absolutely love your reaction to people touching the screen. Given that it's a pet peeve of mine too, I will have to make a habit of adopting this approach.

I installed Windows 8 the other day on my tough-screen computer, this morning it installed an update. Guess what? CRASH! I can't even boot it, I was using the IE10 when I got about 15 error messages about hard drive problems, then let it scan my hard drive. Lots of problems shown. Now the computer won't boot at all.

[edit]The hard drive problems are soooo bad that Windows 8 install disk can't fix them. My only real option was to wipe the hard drive clean and start all over again with a clean computer, losing all my files. Thankfully I have backups of the important files.

windows 8 has built in antivrus program ,"windows defender" ,work and looks just like windows securith essencial, and I have been using win8 for about 3 months now and nothing go in yet .and I download and run a lot of program people who come to this site looking for help have installed , I install them to see if I cand reproduce the problem they get from the software .alls go so far .
as for the start screen I just by-pass it and go right to my desktop .I put a shortcut to windows explorer in startup,to open the startup folder go to RUN and type in , shell:startup .

There is nothing wrong with Windows 8. This week, I upgraded both of my laptops to W8, and am very happy with the results. The Windows 8 UI is clean, looks good, and works as advertised. I don't undestand why the author or the article is so down on Microsoft. It looks like they have a winner, especially with the $39.99 limited time upgrade. That is a deal!

Apple has an insignificant market share in laptop and desktop systems. They rule the tablet world, but that may not be for long. Apple does not have a reasonable value proposition in computers for work and play. It is only in the tablet end that they excel, and it turns out that the value reveived in an iPad is illusory, too. I have an iPad, and the device is usless for real work other than browsing and surfing. Yeah, sales guys are carrying them around, but all they are used for is checking inventory or order status.

Apple's momentum is being blunted by the millions of Android devices flooding the market. It makes Apple look silly when you can get a $50 Android with the features of an iPhone. You can get cheaper iPhones, now, but they are all old technology.

Windows 8 is totally compatible with the dominant computer operating system, Windows 7. If Apple were going to really increase their market share, they should be able to go after the millions of desktops still using XP. But, that is not in Apple's marketing plan. They know that their devices do not fit in a market where value counts. That's why Apple will never have significant market share in the enterprise market, except with some soft applications that require only reading, not working or creating.

Believe it or not, I am not a huge Microsoft fan. I have learned to respect Microsoft for what they do well. For example, the computing world would not be where it is without Windows, Office, and dotNET products. Apple, on the other hand, is not a techonolgy company, they are a marketing company. That's what has propelled Apple past the others in total market value. It was not computers that did it, it was a dressed up mp3 player that started their renaissance.

The desktop and start menu is customizable regarding pinning and placement of shortcuts, including to the task bar. The start menu is instantly opened and closed by the Windows key button - I fail to understand the ongoing consternation by some , although I support their right to express angst

we are most like to use windiows 8 but really suck with old hardware performance and not have bucks to upgrade the hardware requirements. So try fot windows RT version which is far better than windows 8 in performance speed. Sure tell more about it to me and I am witing for replies.

I just bought a laptop with Windows 8. I've used every version of Windows including prior to 95. I do feel like this windows is alien-like. Things that drive me insane: the start menu is not there, the windows button brings you to the apps. It is hard to get the pop out menu to appear to shut down or change settings unless using the Internet where it won't stop popping in. And why is the address bar at the bottom for the Internet rather than the top? That is minor but i spent a few minutes figuring that one out. I love learning and challenges, well I certainly got more than I bargained for! After two weeks of daily use, I still feel like a newbie. I understand the comparison to the tablet, i was exited to try it for that reason, however my thrive tablet is more like using a previous version of windows. I will keep using it because i know someone will eventually ask me about it, and i prefer to be as knowledgeable as i can.

I was browsing a local computer store. I saw an ipad and an HP computer running Windows 8 touch-screen. First time I'd seen either. I picked up the ipad and ran a few apps. Each app had this small faint white ball. I could drag it anywhere on the screen. When I tapped it I got a menu that allowed me to get back "home", terminate the app, etc. On the HP machine I started one app then spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to end it or get the menu back (the keyboard was not available). I finally gave up and walked away. How long is Microsoft going to keep chasing Apple, trying to duplicate their products and failing miserably?

I don't particularly like any that says "I don't care what you want. I'm running full screen". I understand some games require this but when I'm playing a game I don't want to do other things so I don't really mind.

Does anyone remember the Amiga? The only computer that I recall could display in two different resolutions at the same time on one screen.

I think that MS made a miscalculation with having the metro screen interface as default. I for one don't to use anything like that on a desktop, or a non touchscreen laptop. So I have used Windows Classic Shell to force it back to a usable desktop and a start menu. What they will need to do is write a patch, or a service pack that gives you a choice between merto, or a normal desktop with a start menu. That would solve most issues and give business's something more attractive and useful.

Windows 8 is definently software that is going to be a toss up. You will either love it or hate it. The benefit to Windows 8 is the quick start up and the ability to switch from work like to home life extremely quick. I look forward to playing with it.

The transformation of Windows 8 is only mirroring previous leaps in innovations for Microsoft. Reflect on the leaps that were from DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, then the complete step away from DOS to Windows NT. (Win '98 and XP, etc, were improvements on established architectures)

In Win' 8 there is a big adaptation toward touch screen technology. But this in itself isn't something new to Microsoft. Their tablet edition of XP is intuitive, and blended seamlessly into my previous tablets. Then consider their Windows Mobile editions. They have been around touch screen devices for quite some time, and have done it very well.

I'm just as guilty as anyone for MS bashing, but Microsoft opened up the computer market like no-one else could. It brought computer technology within the reach of every household. Microsoft coalesced with the hardware market in a way that no other operating system has to this day. Some could wave the Unix and Linux flag, but as much as I love Linux, it's still a lot of hardwork and stubborn and not suited to beginners - not only because of the nature of Unix, but also the support culture.

There will be teething problems with Win' 8, but we'll ride through it. :)

windows 8 is still almost unusable for me. I took my computer to Best Buy to get Windows 8 reinstalled. Everything except one has been ok since then -- now when I right click on anything Windows Explorer crashes. I've looked in the logs and see error messages that Explorer stopped working. I know that programs can alter the menu that appears when you right-click and I suspect that is what's causing Explorer to crash.

As I read this thread I get a sickening feeling about how inflexable many of the poster are. I am a couple of months shy of 70 and I don't have as near the issues that many of you have with running Windows 8. You want the Desktop, you only need to hit one single button. If you run an application such as Quicken, you tap the metro icon and it starts the desktop and the application. If you are having such a big problem with Win 8 you better not buy a new car because things are changing there to.

The problem is that Microsoft has taken away the choice. Sure, you can get the desktop but you should be able to choose that as the default. Sure, you can get the desktop, but too many actions pop you out of the desktop and back to Metro. It's not us being inflexible. It's Microsoft. And when it comes to buying a new car, I'll pick one from a manufacturer that caters to my needs and wants.